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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem III-B PLANNING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE August 23, 2004 MINUTES I. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order AT 5:00 PM in the City Council Chambers by Chair Sue Singer. Committee members present were Member Nancy Backus and Member Lynne Norman. Also present were Director of Planning Paul Krauss, Parks and Recreation Director Daryl Faber, Community Development Manager David Osaki, Traffic Engineer Laura Philpot, Property and Facilities Administrator Lynn Rued, Planner Bill Mandeville, Economic Development Planner Al Hicks, Assistant Planning Secretary Carolyn Brown Guest present is Mark Hancock, for Sister Cities II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Chair Singer discussed the correction to the minutes of July 26, 2004. Planning Director Krauss added that this is the first set of minutes consistent with the new format. The committee discussed the correction of minutes. Planning Director Krauss said he will discuss with recording secretary. Council member Backus moved to accept the minutes of the July 26 meeting as nd corrected. 2 by Council member Norman. Minutes of the August 9, 2004 meeting were approved as read. III. ACTION A. Call for Public Hearing for Consolidated Plan. Council member Norman moved to approve and a second by Council member Backus. Chair Singer concurred. At this time Mayor Lewis introduced the new Economic Development Manager Holly Ryan. IV. DISCUSSION A. Non-motorized Plan. Page 1 Planning and Community Development Committee August 23 , 2004 Chair Singer stated she is very interested in the time line for the non-motorized plan. and how A Street SE and R Street SE will be affected. Traffic Engineer Philpot said the R Street SE plan will include bike paths. Currently there is only enough width along R Street SE to have parking on the west side with no parking on the east side. Chair Singer asked if the street will be widened. Traffic Engineer Philpot answered no. There will be $75,000 in the budget for a feasibility study of R Street SE and Auburn Black Diamond Road. Also, will widen shoulders and resurface roadway. This will be a temporary fix to the shoulders of Auburn Black Diamond Road. Next year the City will redo the roadway along R Street to the city limits/RR tracks. Committee discussed how the streets will connect once the M Street crossing is done. The committee discussed where the City is regarding a Green River Trail. Traffic Engineer Philpot said the City will know better next year after the study. Chair Singer said it appears the City is concentrating more on Auburn Black Diamond Road rather then R Street. Traffic Engineer Philpot said one of the R Street connections staff is looking at is to Game Farm Park, as there is enough width. Chair Singer asked if the A Street trail will be on the RR side. Traffic Engineer Philpot said actually the project has been moved further out in the future. The obstacles along the A Street SE are businesses and the RR spur line along the likely trail route. Mayor Lewis added that there is no place to landscape. The Committee discussed a plan for a loop around Auburn which is probably a 20 year idea. Chair Singer asked about a possible trail along West Valley Highway. Traffic Engineer Philpot said that will be considered next year because of wetland issues. Chair Singer said there has been significant progress as what has happened in the last few years. Traffic Engineer Philpot said a sidewalk inventory has been done. There is $100,000 in budget this year for sidewalk improvements. The committee then discussed how the money could be allocated as there is a lot of needs in local streets. B. Auburn’s Sisters Cities Plan Mark Hancock gave an overview of Auburn’s Sister City Plan. He said that Al Hicks, Economic Development Planner is the City representative for Sister Cities. Sister Cities International is the umbrella group. The group was started for a variety of reasons, such as friends, businesses, a link with another city. Trying to sustain the relationship is the hard part. Overtime, the Lions Club is the organization that has sustained the Sister Cities connection with the City in Japan. 24 people from the City of Auburn went on a trip to Japan in 1998. It would be nice to see the City of Auburn add a link on their website to the city in Japan. At this time the group is still working on a development with a City in Italy. Auburn also has a Fiji relationship and is hoping Rotary will be become the sponsoring organization. There has also been a town in Ireland and one in Australia. Page 2 Planning and Community Development Committee August 23 , 2004 Mark mentioned that funding is tough to come by but there are local grants and national grants that can be accessed for funding for sister cities. There is a need for subcommittees, sponsors and oversight committees. Mark Hancock and Councilmember Backus will meet later to discuss possible contacts. C. Design for the Artwork for the new Public Safety Building Parks and Recreation Director Faber displayed how the integration of artwork into the design will be done before the building is completed. There is usually a ‘50’s or ‘60’s look when neon is used. This artwork will be using sub lighting, rather then neon. It will appear like neon, but not as bright. This particular work will be along the Massey front design of the building (the part that goes up) and will be on both side of the building sign. Internally in the building, will be the same type of artwork down the hallway. Both the architect and artist are cooperating in the design. D. Front Yard Parking in Residential Zones. David Osaki, Community Development Administrator stated that occasionally code enforcement receives complaints regarding front yard parking. There is nothing in the code that really addresses the surfacing requirements of additional cars and what is excessive such as, trailers, RV’s, etc. Planning Director Krauss added that parking in the front yard does not look good and often is related to other problems. David Osaki asked if the PCD still interested in pursing the issues of front yard parking. After some discussion Council member Backus said she liked the percentages that SeaTac used for their ordinance. Mayor Lewis asked if this is the direction that the city wants to go. Chair Singer would like staff to come back with an ordinance similar to the one the City of SeaTac has developed. E. Parks Plan Update Parks and Recreation Director Faber highlighted areas of the plan. It is still a work in progress. Chapter 1 is an overview; Chapter 2 projection of population and shows that 71% of population is using parks, and 90% is rated high. The recreation guide is widely used and Chapter 2 also shows income levels, topo, and history. Later chapters will have GIS maps and aerials, hand drawings, etc. Chapter 3 is the needs assessment and areas of need. Demands for field needs are being met for baseball, etc., but there is alack of soccer fields and indoor gym usage. Part of the plan goals are trails, community facility and maintain existing parks system. Chapter 4 is the balance of the program and addresses property acquisition. Parks and Recreation Director Faber discussed impact fees, especially for smaller developments. Chair Singer gave a little background on history of impact fees for parks. The City Council did not decide on a standard fee. Parks and Recreation Director Faber wanted to match the CFP with a need and probably looking at every home and multi family. Discussed the ways of developing impact fees to keep housing costs down. Councilmember Backus asked if impact fees were for new parks or maintenance for older parks. Parks and Recreation Director Faber answered that they are not for Page 3 Planning and Community Development Committee August 23 , 2004 maintenance. But could be used to improve a facility or add a building (bathrooms, etc.). Discussed trails and would there to ¼ mile of trails per 1000 population. Chapter 6 will be arts and the plan has never had an arts component. As there needs to have policy, maintenance and funding of artwork. Discussion of funding to maintain the artwork. The arts budget has two parts. Discussion of maintenance. Chapter 7 covers open space. Parks and Recreation Director Faber said the City has great dividers – freeways and the river. Chapter 8 covers trails. There is the Mill Creek corridor and the Auburn Environmental Park and there will be a lot of funding opportunities. For instance, the Roegner trail is a work in progress and hope to loop thru the Kersey III project. Parks and Recreation Director Faber will have the other 3 chapters done in the next 3 weeks and will get those to the PCD members. Chair Singer has interviewed candidates for the Community Center project. Mayor Lewis is looking at an opportunity for the entire community. F. Budget for Parks and Recreation Department Parks and Recreation Director Faber informed the Committee that the blue pages within in the budget show any changes from the previous year. There are some new items such a few new vehicles, recreation marketing budget, policy changes more flexible in pricing, and he added if the Committee had any comments to send them to him electronically. G. Fair Housing per Consolidated Plan Overview and Federal interpretations. Planner Bill Mandeville said one section of Consolidated Plan is on fair housing. 9.64 is the fair housing ordinance which no longer exists. Planner Mandeville noted that HUD wants the City to do a strategy to address fair housing issues. The City of Kent is doing an analysis also to meet this requirement and willing to jointly split the cost. Kent is getting proposals now. Chair Singer said this is the cheapest way to get this done. The PCD agreed that the City go ahead and team with Kent. The Committee held a discussion about the issues in Terminal Park area. Chair Singer put A Street zoning back on the agenda for the second meeting in September. H. Zoning Code – Wireless Communication Facilities Community Development Manager David Osaki spoke to PCD about a facility that was over 130 feet tall. A draft amendment was prepared. Community Development Manager Osaki asked if the code amendment should be processed since the original need for the amendment no longer exists. Chair Singer said the work has been done, Page 4 Planning and Community Development Committee August 23 , 2004 staff could go forward and process has used that argument. Daryl could be a nice and could be about $25k a year. V. INFORMATION Councilmember Singer indicated that there are so many items presently going on that a status matrix similar to one the Public Works committee uses, should be developed. VI. OLD BUSINESS Plaza discussion. The Committee discussed issues related to the plaza. Parks is to proceed with the landscaping plan. The City is to set a bid on just replacing the brick pavers with new pavers and return the bid to the PCD for review. VII. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Planning and Community Development Committee, the meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m. APPROVED THE ________ DAY OF 2004. ______________________________ __________________________ *******************, Chair ***********************, Secretary Page 5